Girls-Only Trip ~ Old planning thread, see first post for new link

[CaliforniaDreamer]

We had a nice Halloween here. Had a little party at home with the four of us and made a Halloween dinner of witches brains (spaghetti), goblin fingers (hot dogs cut up and curled) and termite blood (blackberry juice). Plus I decorated the house. Not nearly as fun as trick or treating, but our way of marking the occasion.

Halloween at the school also went well. I went for easy. Cut jack o laterns for both kids' classes and did a toss the coin in the pumpkin game. Then did pin the nose on the pumpkin, Halloween tic tac toe, make your own Halloween finger puppets. Then we had mummy wrap with toilet paper and blow the balloon across the floor races. And I made those sorry looking Halloween cupcakes and lollipop ghosts (aka, kleenex over lollipops). Kids were very happy with the party, so I'll call it a success!

Anyone want to come to Disneyland for a party to ring in a new decade with me?
-Jen

Wow, you did great with the Swiss/Halloween party! Especially love the coin toss ad the mummy wrap. I'm sure the kids and the teacher were really happy.

Also love your meal.

I'm feeling eager though, because as we speak, Justin is talking to a good friend about hiring him for a job. It's a BIG step down for him, and the pay might be crummy, but who cares?!!! It's a job and a steady flow of income to supplement his extremely sporadic income from appraising. I so hope this works out......I'm scared to even mention it or feel at all hopeful for fear I'll jinx it. I even vacuumed just a bit ago to keep my mind off of it....and I hate vacuuming.

I totally understand. I'll go vacuum for you too...

Hi girls.
I hope everyone is having a day.

I have been doing homework most of the day.
My throat is still sore and my cough is well still here.
I am suppose to be going to Halloween party tonight but I am not sure I am going to make it.

Beth~ I hope you are feeling better.

We are off to the store to buy some candy & a staff (sp) for Kaelebs reaper costume.

I'm sorry you're sick too! Did you make t to the party?

HAPPY HALLOWEEN!

Crazy day - just now finishing the pumpkin carving. Now it's time to hang out outside and hand out candy in flip flops and shorts and t-shirts! Not the Halloween weather I'm used to and I love it!

Yup. That's the Californian Halloween.

Boo everyone.

 

[disney-inspired]

I hop everyone had a fun and safe Halloween.
We had our harvest night for church at my house. We had a good time chatting, eating and playing games. We had a pinata at the end which had the kids all in a ruckus. I fell asleep on the couch around 9pm for about an hour while the kids were playing DDR. We watched a special Food Network Challenge; Horror cakes.

Well I'm so glad we are setting the clocks back because I sure do need it.

Church tomorrow and probably just hanging with the family until I have to go back to school. I'll post pictures of tonight's costume tomorrow.

 

[fairykin]

Have a Very Happy Day, Everyone!

 

[kelmac284]

Good Morning and Happy Sunday and Happy November 1st!!

I assume everyone is sleeping in and taking advantage of the time change as well as recovering from last night!

We had a good day/night yesterday. Mom and I took the girls to that little craft fair/harvest festival and it wasn't that great but it was fun to get out of the house and see the decorations at least. The town it was in is historic and they have really neat shops but the vendors didn't have much good stuff. We did stop by the ice cream shop though and had some ice cream and the highlight was they make homemade candy there and the girls had a blast watching the gal in the back who was dressed like Lucille Ball from that one episode where she made the candy, making candy.

We then came home and the girls got ready and then we headed over to mom's. We stopped at Papa Murphy's and they were PACKED! It took Shane over 15 minutes to get the pizza but then we got to mom's and had dinner and headed out. The girls had lots of fun as usual on the hay ride and got a TON of candy. I don't know what I am going to do in a few years when they are too old to trick or treat cuz this is a fun tradition and I will miss it!

Anyway I got up this morning and took down all my halloween decs and put up the few Thanksgiving ones I have and I am going to ride to Truckee today with mom and dad is going to stay home and play golf with Shane.

Not much going on next week that I know of. No more soccer practice, WOO HOO!! And then we just have Awana (church) on Wed nights. That's pretty much it. We just have 3 soccer games left as well and we should be hearing soon about our end of the year party. I need to get Shelby registered for Basketball as that starts up the first part of January. Also Katy is doing indoor soccer and that starts the first part of Dec plus I have to start thinking about her birthday. But at least for now things are status quo for a bit. WHEW!

Hope everyone has a nice relaxing day today and maybe has something fun planned. TTYL!

 

[disney-super-mom]

Forgot about turning our clocks back last night.....thought we were supposed to do it tonight for some reason, so needless to say, I was up EARLY - LOL.

I also think I have a sugar hangover, if there is such a thing. I rarely eat sugar. Not because I have anything against sugar. It's just that I don't crave sweet foods all that much, so I don't eat them very often. I especially rarely eat candy. (I mean, if I'm craving something sweet, I'm not gonna waste it on candy.....I want the good stuff, like pie and icecream - hahaha.) But I did have some candy last night, and this morning a feel kinda......blah.

Actually, now that I think about it, I think I have a food hangover. I've been cutting way back on calories lately, but yesterday I just said "screw it" and ate a bowl of cereal for breakfast, and a half a balony sandwich and a few Doritos for lunch, and ate a little oatmeal and chocolate chip cookie my mom-in-law made before dinner, and then I had two small bowls of her home-made chili and one of her cornbread muffins with honey for dinner, 3 Bud Light beers, and topped it off with a little box of nerds, a fun-size Laffy Taffy, and a bite-size Reeses. So by the time I went to bed, I felt like I was going to explode. Even reading it sounds like a lots......so actually downing all that - WOW!

We had a fun night though. Justin took the kids trick-or-treating with our neighbor (Jeff) and his kids, while my mom-in-law and I stayed home to give out candy. Oh my gosh, I loved all the kids in their costumes. Some were just SOOOOOO cute! And others were just horrifically SCARY! It was fun! One kid (teenager) was so scary that my mom-in-law screamed her head off (for real) when she saw him. Now THAT made my night....to see Marie.....whoops, I mean Patricia get a good fright on Halloween - LOL!!!

Luckily it wasn't too cold last night, so everyone was comfortable and fairly warm as they ran around in the "cool but not cold" night air.

Now on to Thanksgiving and Christmas!

 

[katieandmattsmom]

Honestly, I would not ever stay Grand Concerige again.
I've stayed twice within 6 weeks. The first time not a good experience, and I held my thoughts on it, wanting to give them another chance. Cheryl and I had to fight the entire weekend to get them to do the smallest thing, like remove dirty breakfast dishes and wine glasses from the night before. We were in the park 8 hours and found they came in made the beds and left the dirty dishes.
I found a housekeeper in the hall, she told us she was only the turn down lady. she then called housekeeping floor manager, who came to the room. So now we have 2 housekeeping representatives in the room. The floor manager then called her housekeeping manager.. and meanwhile Cheryl is going back and forth to concerige seeing if they can resolve this.
Finally when the housekeeping floor manager says her manager is coming to the room, Cheryl turned and said, ENOUGH! There are more of you in the room than we are.
Concerige came down very pissed off and removed the dirty dishes, talk about begruding.

After the second time, it's clear they have issues with their housekeeping staff. I'm just not going to pay to stay again in an unclean room. Same dirty wine glass sat on the table with used napkins in it from the day we got there to the day we left. Each day we would leave the room and come back about 3:45 or 4 and the room had not been touched. How embarassing when we brought friends back. Oh well, they only make themselves look bad.

I think Disney has a poor repeat customer service program. They didn't even acknowledge a 3rd visit to that hotel within 6 weeks, with a mickey rice crispy treat or anything. Why should I develope a client loyalty to a hotel that doesn't even acknowledge my patronage? Especially at those prices in this economy.

That said, the rooms are rooms. Wendy and I spoke of how we both liked the Holiday Inn on South Walnut rooms better.

What makes the Grand Californian Hotel special are two things, The location and the very beautiful Lobby.

We are staying there in Feb/Mar because of the thoughtfulness in regards to sharing a pin. It's about being close to a friend rather than being at that hotel.

My husband and I spoke about how we actually liked being away from the park and not staying on site, because it allows You to decompress from the rush of the parks.

Feb/Mar will be our last stay there. So I am Glad it is shared with close friends.

I know what you are saying. I like stayin at the hotel its beautiful but we had issues with dishes too on our stay. Finally I just stuck them out side the door of our room and they did get picked up. When I told housekeeping we did that cause we were tired of all the dishes she said that is the way they pick them up. Some bus boy scours the halls for dirty dishes but can't go in the rooms.

 

[fairykin]

I know what you are saying. I like stayin at the hotel its beautiful but we had issues with dishes too on our stay. Finally I just stuck them out side the door of our room and they did get picked up. When I told housekeeping we did that cause we were tired of all the dishes she said that is the way they pick them up. Some bus boy scours the halls for dirty dishes but can't go in the rooms.

Now that is a perfect example of ineffective micromanagement.

I don't want anyone to think I am bashing the hotel, the hotel is a really beautiful archtechtually designed reflection of california. I and others are just speaking of negative experiences we had with the lack of concerige services. That said, I'm not saying anymore about it.

 

[disney-super-mom]

I cannot forget a very special Diva today because she's so awesome and wonderful and sweet and thoughtful and super in every way, so.........


LINDA.....

 

[CaliforniaDreamer]

It is Linda's b-day today???




Happy Birthday, Linda!!!! One of the sweetest Divas around!!!
Are you at the park today getting your gift card? I hope so!

Have a wonderful day, whatever you do, and we want to hear about it.

 

[mommaU4]

Hello ladies!!! And Happy Birthday Linda!!!!

I hope you all had a wonderful Halloween. We sure did here. I'm tired though. Still have a bit of a cold, so it took a lot out of me. I'm planning to spend the rest of today taking it easy.

TTYL!!

 

[mommaU4]

Yep, the time is flying by. It's November 1st!! Can you believe it?? Christmas will be here before we know what hit us. And having said that, it's time for sign ups for the Christmas stocking exchange!!

Here is a link to check it out. The Halloween exchange was so much fun. I can't wait to see what sort of fun Christmas goodies and stockings are sent out.
Click for: Christmas stocking exchange

I added the sign up thread link to the front page as well, so if this post gets buried you can always find it there, along with all other important information.

 

[wendylady36]

Happy Sunday, Divas!!! I hope everyone had a fun and safe Halloween.

It's such a gorgeous day here today, it's a shame that I'm inside right now...I'll have to fix that.

Thanks for starting the Christmas exchange, Beth!

HAPPY BIRTHDAY, LINDA!!!!

 

[Queenbillabong]

Happy Birthday, Linda!!!

Hope there's at least a glass of Magicale around to celebrate with

 

[jordansmomma]

Happy Birthday Linda

 

[prettyprincessbelle]

Happy Birthday, Miss Linda!!!!

 

[DizNee Luver]

Hope everyone had a wonderful halloween!!! We had just over 200 trick or treaters & the kids had fun dressing up & going out for their haul of candy.

Just thought I'd share this pic I took of Anthony & Addy......they're such hams:

Thanx for organizing another exchange Beth!!

Happy Birthday Linda....hope it's magical!!

 

[katieandmattsmom]

Happy Birthday Linda!!!!

 

[disney-inspired]

I hope everyone is having a very lovely Sunday afternoon.

 

[DizNee Luver]

I need a realistic amount this trip will run (if I participate in all the extras-meals, tours, etc)
Airfare is $300

For those that have gone....input would be great!! Not sure our taxes would be back in time....so looking to budget (laughing hysterically as I type this) to see if I can pull this off.

Thanx!!!!

 

[mommaU4]

I need a realistic amount this trip will run (if I participate in all the extras-meals, tours, etc)
Airfare is $300

For those that have gone....input would be great!! Not sure our taxes would be back in time....so looking to budget (laughing hysterically as I type this) to see if I can pull this off.

Thanx!!!!

If you participate in all the extras? Well, I can't remember exactly what I paid last time, but I can tell you it was between $750-$800. That was for my AP, gas money to Amy for ride to Anaheim, my share of room split 3 ways, and meals.

I didn't buy any souvenirs other than what I was able to buy with a surprise gift card given to me by the Divas. And I didn't do any tours. Also I didn't eat as much as I had originally planned.

I think it can be done. You might not be able to do the tours, and you might have to eat cheaply with Capri and I, lol, but it can be worked out. I hope you can make it.

Your kids are too cute!!! Love their costumes.